Family Child Care Providers: Unsung Heroes in the COVID-19 Crisis
The Erikson Institute recently published a brief, “Family Child Care Providers: Unsung Heroes in the COVID-19 Crises. You can find and read the brief here in English and in Spanish.
Erikson had been conducting an 18-month project consisting of a literature review and data collection with family child care providers. “Focus groups for the study were underway in March when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The research team became concerned about the impact that the crisis would have on the long-term operations and sustainability of family child care providers and added questions about these changes to the focus group protocol. Recommendations in the brief are based on findings from 22 of the focus groups.”
Three key outcomes are highlighted by the brief:
Family child care providers who stayed open faced multiple barriers to offering safe and sustainable child care.
The COVID-19 crisis highlighted and exacerbated the existing challenges faced by family
child care providers.
Family child care providers’ strengths make them uniquely able to meet this moment.
The providers included in this study were based in California, Florida, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin. After reading this brief, how does your experience with the COVID-19 pandemic compare or contrast to the Erikson findings? We would love to hear about your experiences. You could be highlighted in an upcoming magazine article or podcast episode. Please email ksmith@brightsideup.org with feedback or questions.